Article 1
The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships.

The focus of this study was personal relationships during adolescence in which the thought was the social relationships outside of the family expand and their quality is linked to various behavioral outcomes. The study looked at the social similarity, homophily, and quality of social ties, the duration of the relationship, and the multiplexity of the relationship. The study was part of the annual national youth survey conducted by the Minerva Center of Youth Studies at the University of Haifa. The data was collected between June and October of 2004 and covered a representative sample of 1000 households in Israel.
The findings of the study provided partial support for the association of social similarity and various measures of relational intensity and content of the relationship. In addition the study confirmed the argument that adolescents with an online friend reported the friend was known for a shorter time than face-to-face friends, they discussed fewer topics and they participated in fewer shared activities. Overall the findings indicate that online friends play a reduced and probably more specialized role than the face-to-face friends at extracurricular activities and parties. Finally, the study found that online friends tend to be perceived as less close than face-to-face friends and this is due to the dimension of time and topic of discussion. The reasoning behind this is face-to-face relationships tend to be holistic and not restricted to particular activities and topics where as online relationships are restricted to nonpersonal topics and not everyday activities which causes the online relationships to be perceived as less integrated in the daily life of the individuals and as more distant.

This article will be a good basis for me to start my argument that online social networking has weaker ties and is not as beneficial as face-to-face relationships amongst teenagers. I plan to use this article more extensively in my final paper.

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Article 2
A Review of Online Social Networking Profiles by Adolescents: Implications for Future Research and Intervention.

The study implemented in this paper explored content posted by and interactions that took place by adolescents on online social networking profiles. The sample for this study was 100 randomly selected profiles authored by adolescents who where between the ages of 16 and 18. The content was coded by identifying rich thematic elements which were included family and social issues, risk behaviors, disclosure of personally identifiable information and frequent peer interaction.

The outcome of this study was very inconclusive because it raised more questions then answering the question it set out to prove or disprove. Observing the adolescent behavior within an online network supported the notion that profiles are rich in behavioral data as related to the development and individuation. The review of the profiles indicates the necessity fro more analysis on profiles to determine the importance of adolescent behavior and peer interaction as it relates to social relationships, risk behaviors, special interests, extracurricular activities and family dynamics.

Although this study had no profound or concrete findings on what I am trying to study it does show that further research needs to be conducted on this topic because it is not directly apparent.

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